Street trees boost property prices

Urban forests are boosting Perth’s property prices.

A large-scale economic analysis of the Perth metropolitan area, conducted by UWA’s School of Agriculture and Resource Economics, UWA’s Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy and CSIRO, has found that broad-leaved trees on suburban street verges increase median property value by more than $16,000.

“The well developed network of parks and street trees in the Perth metropolitan area and a relatively high property price in this city were two aspects that motivated us to examine the link between street trees and property price,” says Professor Pandit of UWA’s School of Agriculture and Resource Economics.

“We expected that, based on the literature, both trees on the property and on the streets have a positive impact on property price,” he said.

Surprisingly, broad-leaved verge trees were found to be the only category that had a significant effect on sale price, increasing the median property value by $16,889, with trees on the property not demonstrating any effect.

To enhance their understanding of the link between trees and property value in the context of residential Perth, the group are now examining tree coverage in 14 central metropolitan city councils and are surveying residents on their perceptions and attitude towards trees on the property and street verges.

Source:

http://www.sciencewa.net.au/topics/social-science/item/1975-street-trees-give-rise-to-property-prices.html